The SPOY Prize Strip Tease Continues

When I first heard that the folks at Elinchrom were interested in sponsoring our contest, visions of Maryam Abdullina, the stunning Kazakh model in the Joe McNally / Elinchrom lighting brochure, danced into my head. But alas, modeling sessions with Ms. Abdullina are not Elinchrom's to contribute.

To find out what Elinchrom did contribute to the Strobist Photos of the Year and the the folks who made it happen, take a peek behind the jump veil...________________________

Elinchrom has generously ponied up a D-Lite 2 Kit, which is an AC-powered (2) 200ws-monobloc kit. Each of the strobes is more than three times as powerful as your average speedlight, but the goodness doesn't stop there.

The D-Lite 2 Kit prize was arranged by Alex at The Flash Centre, a UK-based group of stores that specializes in lighting gear. I visited the London store in May. (They also have stores in Leeds and Birmingham). Giant photos shot by customers up on the walls, lotsa lighting conversation -- the whole nine yards. Ran into Neil Turner (of the lighting site dg28.com) last time I was there, too.

If you are in the UK and have not yet visited a Flash Centre, you are missing out. Just a good place to hang for an afternoon and get your wallet lightened.

Note: These are shipping from the UK, and may very well come with UK-tipped power cords. But they are multivoltage compatible, and appear to have standard power cord connectors on the flash head end for easy, cheap swapping out.

If you own a D-Lite 2 Kit and can confirm this, please let us know in the comments.

Here's a little clip from the lighting DVD that ships with the kit:

So, getting interested yet? We now have the Canon G9, the SB-800's and the Elinchrom kit. And there are two more to come. Get those pix into the prize pool before the 18th!___________________________

Please join me in thanking both Elinchrom and the gang at The Flash Centre (especially Alex) for making this happen. We have a good number of readers in the UK, and it is great to see the UK flying the flag in the prize pack.